


The Ruins

by The_Invisible_Fan



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-09-17
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2017-11-14 10:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/514098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Invisible_Fan/pseuds/The_Invisible_Fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While digging the foundations for a new city on Gran Pulse, the ancient ruins of a once great city called Midgar are discovered, but the ruins may hold more than just lost history. Midgar may hold the key to saving humanity from the giant monsters that have begun to appear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What Lies Beneath

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> A/N: For the purposes of this fic, the events of XIII-2 do not occur, though inspiration for how people live on Gran Pulse is taken from it.

It had been three years since the purge. Three years since the crystal pillar formed. Three years of waiting, of trying to convince those in charge that they wouldn't bring Cocoon down on their heads. That Fang and Vanille weren't dangerous. That he was a good enough pilot to not crash into the pillar.

It had taken too damn long.

Sazh watched as they unloaded Fang and Vanille's crystal from the plane. Serah had assured him that words spoken to them would reach them through the stasis. He hoped that having people around would make things more bearable for them. Maybe people being around would even help them wake up sooner. Those two deserved to be able to live their lives.

The crystal was carted into what was in the process of becoming a good sized school. It had started out as one small building that Serah and NORA had built, and more were added as more teachers and students came. Serah had decreed that Fang and Vanille would watch over the school from its tiny courtyard. Sazh smiled. Those two might be crystal, but they sure wouldn't be lonely.

Serah had been planning to have the students plant a flower garden around the crystal. She paced around the courtyard after once the crystal was in place, mentally planning out where the flowerbeds should go.

Struck with a sudden idea, she spun to face Sazh. "We should build a museum, right next to the school. Fill it with artifacts from the ruins we find on Gran Pulse. I've heard they've already brought back some from Oerba. When Fang and Vanille wake up they can tell us all about them."

"Where are you going to find room to add another building?" Sazh looked around the small courtyard. It was already completely ringed by classrooms.

"We have room, the school is on the edge of town, and so we have all the room we could want. Just think, you can meet Daj there after school."

Sazh grinned and shook his head. "You young people and your dreams. Always thinking big." He turned to Fang and Vanille. "You better wake up soon! We're going to get everything about Oerba wrong without you, you know?"

In his mind's eye he could see Vanille grinning at them.

OOO

Lightning should have been grateful to have a decent house in New Bodhum. She didn't even have to share the communal housing with six other families like most did. Instead, she had to share to share it with Serah and her new husband Snow.

And Sazh and his son.

And Hope and his father.

And Snow's buddies from NORA.

People were constantly coming and going, making it more akin to barracks or dormitories than a home. It was two storied, bedrooms above, kitchen and common rooms below. The construction, like all early-built structures, was quick and cheap, lacking in insulation of any sort. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter and they could hear every aircraft that flew above them. Lightning's room was also far to close to Serah and Snow's for her tastes. Running into Snow first thing in the morning had never been high on her list, even when they were on the run as L'Cie.

But somehow, somewhere along the way, tuning out the late night exuberant shouts from NORA and stepping over the toys Dajh left on the stairs became routine and familiar. Serah and Sazh discussing ways to make their meager rations stretch further became normal. And somehow, the crowded, flimsy, noisy house became home.

No one knew them as the l'Cie who saved Cocoon. The brands were gone; most who knew their faces well had died in the disasters and near collapse of leadership that followed the fall of Dysley. They were nobodies, just refugees from the disaster like everyone else.

It was strange.

Lieutenant Amodar had never processed her resignation from the chaos of the purge and upon seeing her again proceeded to act like it had never happened and ignored her whenever she tried to broach the subject. It felt good to work again and keeping monsters away from exploration and work crews usually kept her busy.

Lightning watched the work crews dig the foundations for what would someday become New Palumpolum. Unlike the ramshackle New Bohdum, this would be a planned city of permanent buildings and streets for new Gran Pulse colonists. New Bohdum had always been overcrowded with refugees, but with the increase of people lured by the rumors of the rich, empty land beneath them the hastily built city was close to bursting at the seams. It didn't help that the fortune-seekers seemed to possess little common sense and the Guardian Corps constantly had to rescue them from monsters.

Lightning was just beginning her lunch break when a cry rang out from one of the workers. Hastily dropping her lunchbox, she hurried to the source of the yell, weapon at the ready. It wouldn't be the first time a burrowing monster had caught them by surprise.

The workers held their shovels loosely in their hands. Astonishment, not fear decorated their faces as they stared down at the hollow chamber they had cracked open beneath them.

"What do you think it is?"

"Ruins?"

"Quick, get a light!"

"Be careful. It could be dangerous down there." Lightning walked to the edge of the hole and looked in. It was too dark to see much, but from the light that filtered through the hole there appeared to be the remains of possibly furniture and what may have once been a table of some sort. Taking the light from the worker, she dropped down.

The ruins were completely unlike those she had seen in Oerba. Rather than the arced, natural shapes of the Oerba ruins, she stood in a dark industrial-looking room. Remains of what may have been parts of the interior walls littered the floor. The sheen of archaic computer screens barely glinted beneath the blanket of dust that lay on top of them. A red diamond on a dark square decorated one wall. There appeared to be come kind of faded writing on it. Lightning carefully moved across the uneven floor to get a better look.

A soft thud landed behind her. Lieutenant Amodar had dropped down behind her. He whistled. "Looks like some pretty old ruins. The historians are going to love this."

Lightning made a non-committal noise a brushed some of the dust off the logo. There was some sort of design on the diamond and something that looked like writing on the lower left, but the writing was too faded to read. "Sir, take a look at this."

He peered over her shoulder. "Looks like it might predate the War of Transgression."

"Never took you for an academic, Lieutenant."

"My mother was a historian. I picked up some trivia here and there."

Lightning scanned the room with the narrow flashlight beam. More faded signs adorned the walls, their messages short. Mostly directional or cautionary signs if the barely visible arrows and diagrams were any indication. The only thing she could read without removing a blanket of dust was the number sixty-seven painted next to the crumbed remains of a stairwell.

Amodar chuckled. "Ruins from a Pre-war of Transgression civilization? There's going to be a bloodbath over who gets to excavate this."

OOO

Serah's eyes glittered. "Pre-war ruins?"

"We should go explore them. Who knows what we'll find!" Snow grinned.

"I don't think they'll take kindly to you blundering through the site, Snow." Lightning's voice was even.

"Aww… come on, Sis. You can't tell me it doesn't nag at your sense of adventure."

"Let the professionals do their job. You'll just break something." He was right, but Lightning would never let him have that satisfaction.

Unfortunately by now Snow had known her too long to be convinced by the act. "Maybe they'll let us help out with the dig. There's always the chance of some monsters showing up right?"

"That's a great idea! Someday, I can show my students the artifacts we dig up." Serah's voice drifted off as she got that look in her eye that said she was already thinking up the kind of lesson plans she could make. Serah was a natural at teaching, but at times she seemed to talk of little else.

Lightning sighed and decided to leave the two idiots to their plans, knowing she'd hear nothing else for weeks. The next two days were spent dodging questions about who would be excavating, and if anything new had been discovered.

Before she knew it, they had dragged Hope into their scheming. Lightning was surprised; she never would have thought that the kid would have an interest in archaeology.

"Light! Anything new at the ruins? Did they find any more rooms?" Hope ambushed her as soon as she came through the door.

She could only sigh in resignation. Might as well give him the daily report and be done with it. "Apparently the ruins are beneath the whole site. They got someone who specializes in ancient history out to look at the room we found."

"Oh…" Hope looked somewhat disappointed. "So no treasure then?"

"No treasure yet." She gave him a pat on the shoulder and headed upstairs.

OOO

Hope had always liked history, but it was using the pulse dreadnought to break down gates in Cocoon had really started his interest in artifacts. The idea that something could be five hundred years old and still work had been amazing. The Oerba ruins had been the nail in the coffin. He had listened with rapt attention as Vanille explained how people had lived and watched closely when they repaired Bahkti. When Lightning had told them about the new ruins, ruins even older than Oerba, he couldn't help it.

The scientific expeditionary team had been happy to take him on as a volunteer. They had him assigning a number and taking a picture of each artifact they pulled up from the ruins. It was tedious at times, but it allowed him to see nearly everything they found. Hope wished they would let him in the ruins, but they were strict about letting only those trained in excavation inside. He'd seen photos of the interior, but it was hardly the same as being there.

The archaeologists loved to speculate on what the artifacts did, and what the building might have been for. The logo that kept appearing everywhere in the ruin was apparently for the "Shinra Electric Company." Though why an electric company would have a room filled with what looked appeared to be some kind of military armory was beyond any of them.

He had just finished cataloguing a collection of small mysterious items when they brought something large wrapped in canvas into the warehouse. Larger items that had to be lifted up by ropes were often wrapped up to prevent damage during transport.

Hope peeled back the canvas to find himself looking at what appeared to be a stuffed toy cat riding a moogle.


	2. A Puzzle Without a Picture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: This is fanfiction and should be in no way mistaken for being anything else.
> 
> A/N: The Final Fantasy series seems to have some of the most durable robots in the universe. Especially FFXIII since five hundred years later those suckers are still moving about as they please.
> 
> Fear not, Cait Sith isn't the only character from FFVII that will show up. Also, the personalities of the FFVII cast are influenced more by the original game than the rest of the compilation since I've been playing through it again recently.

Serah was grading papers at school when she heard it. It was a sound like the sigh of the wind, sending a glitter of crystal and light through the air outside. She glanced up sharply, head snapping to the window. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

"Fang! Vanille!" Papers forgotten, she rushed into the courtyard.

OOO

There were times when Hope desperately missed magic. His hands would itch with the urge to cast something and Hope would clench them into fists until the feeling passed. It had taken months for him to stop trying to cast a spell by reflex when a monster would appear. Combat spells were brilliant in their devastation, but it was the practical spells he missed most. Cure, haste, libra…

Libra would have been useful for the artifacts they were digging up.

He'd been able to determine that the cat-moogle was a robot of some kind. It seemed bizarre that such a strange looking robot was inside a power company though. Maybe the building once had a day care center in it? As near has he could tell, the robot appeared undamaged, at least on the outside. It was just turned off.

He should probably just photograph the thing and move on, but what if he could get it to work? Maybe it could tell them something about the ruins. He ran his fingers along the dusty surface looking for a switch, a button, a panel cover, anything… Eventually his fingers found what looked like a pinhole on the side of the cat. It looked like there was some kind of recessed button. Hope quickly repurposed a paperclip and pressed it.

Nothing happened.

Hope frowned. Maybe he had to hold the button down longer? He tried again. Still nothing. He signed and flopped back in his chair. Maybe there was internal damage to the robot. Or maybe the battery had just gone bad. If it even ran on electricity. Maybe it ran on steam or whatever 'mako' was.

Hope tried not to be too disappointed as he began to fill out the paperwork. He was just filling in the last few descriptions when he heard a strange whirring sound behind him.

The robot hadn't moved, but a strange grinding noise came from it for a few moments before falling silent. Huh, maybe there was a hope of getting it to work, after all.

OOO

Lightning leaned out of the plane to get a better look at the ground below. Monster reports were increasing. Even when they were crossing Gran Pulse on foot three years ago, they hadn't run across this many monsters. Something had to be causing the monsters to attack the city. The question was: what? All she could see below was a vast expanse of wilderness.

When she returned to New Bohdum construction on the wall around the city was well under way. It was at best a temporary fix. It wouldn't even slow down some of the larger monsters. All equipment and workers from the New Palumpolum project were forced to return to town every night. They were currently too exposed at the ruin and the construction site to remain there safely. It was a setback that would delay construction of the new town even further than the discovery of the ruins.

Something had to be causing the monsters to become more aggressive. The monsters had behaved more like animals before. They attacked if you ran into them, but otherwise left you alone for the most part. Lightning made a mental note to ask Fang about it.

It was well after dark when the plane returned to New Bohdum. The airstrip was busy. The Scientific Research Team was unloading crates of artifacts to be taken to a nearby warehouse to be catalogued and the construction crews were stowing their equipment for the night so they could ship them back to the site the following morning.

Lightning was leaving the airfield when she spotted one of Hope's friends from the research team helping to push a cart that was weighed down by what vaguely resembled a large crystal. It had something dark trapped within it, like a bug in amber.

Lightning frowned at the strange sight, but brushed it off for the time being. If it was of any interest Hope would tell them all about it sooner or later.

OOO

"Fang? Vanille? What are you doing here?" Hope looked up from an ancient photograph of some sort of headless… thing. The two women had appeared in the doorway.

"We came to keep you company." Vanille bounced into the room.

"Snow mentioned you were working here, so we decided to come check things out. Any idea what these things are?" Fang poked at twisted hunk of metal that vaguely resembled a something mechanical.

"There's at least five theories for every object in here." Hope shook his head. No one could agree on anything. "Some of them seem to be in relatively good condition for being at least two thousand years old. I think I almost got one of the robots to work." Hope walked over to where the cat-moogle sat in a corner, half hidden by other artifacts. "He came in two weeks ago, but I've been putting off listing him as catalogued. I really think I can get him to work."

"That looks like something you'd see in Nautilus!" Vanille scooped up the robotic cat for a closer look. She turned it over in her hands, looking for a switch. "How do you turn it on?"

Hope shrugged. "They said the site used to be a power company's building, but they've found all sorts of things that don't seem to fit. They've found a laboratory of some kind and lots of weapons. Not what you would expect from a utility company."

"Weird." Fang's gaze wandered about the room. "Hey what's that? A crystal?"

It was half covered in a tarp that was too small for it. Unlike most crystals they had seen, it lacked the graceful spikes and spires of those in crystal stasis or the pillar that held up Cocoon. It was more geometric and rough, like crystals you dug out of the ground, but had almost a strange glow to it. Fang pulled back the tarp. Suspended inside the crystal was the dark shape of a person, but the surface of the crystal was too rough and dirty to see much more than a silhouette. Horizontal to the ground, with their limbs gently reaching upwards, the person looked like they were sinking into the crystal, as if some weight on their back was dragging them downwards. It was an eerie sight.

"That's not someone in crystal stasis."

"They look like they fell into water and then it turned into crystal around them… like Lake Bresha did," Vanille's voice was somber.

Hope glanced at the crystal, before turning away quickly. "They found it in a cave on one of the exploration trips a few days ago. It's not from the Shinra ruins like the rest of these." He gestured to the rest of the artifacts in the room.

"Did you say Shinra?" Vanille looked at Hope curiously. "There was a mythical city that was said belong to the Shinra. What was it called? …madeoheim …malboro? Midgar! That's it!" Vanille grinned at her success.

Fang looked thoughtful. "I remember that story. Midgar, the floating city. It was supposed to be the greatest city in the world. According to legend, something called Meteor came from the sky and destroyed it. People used to use the story to justify distrust towards Cocoon. Some even used to say Meteor was another Cocoon and like Meteor we needed to destroy it. One must never trust the calamity from the sky, they said." Fang glanced at a large sign that bore the Shinra logo. "Huh… I guess the Shinra weren't a government though. Just a power company. Myth and reality… they're always different."

She let the tarp fall back into place.

"Snow said the expedition brought some things from Oerba?" Robot cat forgotten, Vanille's expression was mischievous.

"In the next warehouse. No one's brought Bahkti back yet. The excavation's on the other side of the ruins right now."

"We'll just have to get to Bahkti before they do! I'm not giving him up after all!" Vanille danced out of the room with the others trailing behind.

OOO

NORA had taken to patrolling the area and providing backup for the Guardian Corp against the steadily increasing monster attacks. The attacks came almost weekly now, usually at dawn or disk when it was hardest to see them. Fang had confirmed the unusualness of the behavior. It was like something was driving them to attack, controlling them from the shadows. A fal'cie? After what happened to Cocoon, Snow wouldn't put anything past them. They were scouting the foothills of the nearby mountains when they encountered a pack of cie'th.

"Come on! We can't let the Guardian Corp have all the fun, can we?" Snow leapt off his chocobo and charged ahead into the fray, the rest of NORA close behind him.

Snow's fist connected with the creature's face and the creature went down with a shriek. Behind him muzzles flashed as gunshot peppered the rest of the monster pack. Soon nothing but the still forms of the creatures remained.

Snow needed to find out what was controlling the monsters so they could protect everyone.

"What's that fal'cie doing?" Yuj pointed down into the small valley below them.

Snow took the binoculars. A large fal'cie, Titan it looked like, was digging deep into the side of the valley, kicking up some kind of blue-green crystal in the process. The fal'cie paused to examine its diggings, almost as if it were looking for something buried, before resuming its uncharacteristic burrowing.

"What are you up to?" Snow lowered the binoculars.

They watched the fal'cie, periodically looking over its progress with the binoculars, but it gave no indication of what it was looking for, or what it was up to. It merely dug into crystal and earth creating a deep trench in the valley floor. If it was Atomos, the digging would be normal, but Titan had always seemed more concerned with producing stronger creatures than rearranging the surface.

Hours later, Snow stood, stretching out his stiff muscles. "We should check back on this area again later. That thing is up to something."

"Isn't this where the exploration crew was yesterday? Think it could be checking what they were up to?"

"Trying to make sure we don't find something is more likely." What would the fal'cie be trying to hide from them? Snow took one last look before heading back to their chocobos.

OOO

They were really making progress. Vanille and Hope had managed to clean out most of the mechanical parts of the cat robot and reattached some of the wires. Now they were ready for another attempt at turning the little robot on. Tip of her tongue poking out in concentration, Vanille pushed the recessed button with a stiff wire. The robot's gears ground noisily, then it sat up.

"We did it!" she clapped her hands together in celebration. Hope grinned back.

The robot shook its head as if to clear it and then looked at them. It said something, but its voice was garbled and the only word they were able to catch was "you."

"What's your name? I'm Vanille and this is Hope."

"I'm Cait Sith. Where am I?" The robot's words were understandable with concentration.

"You're in New Bohdum. We found you in some ruins."

Cait Sith considered this for a moment. "Ruins? How long was I trapped in the Shinra building? I wasn't able to properly activate when my previous body was destroyed, but my memory download was successful."

"We don't know exactly. They think the ruins are at least two thousand years old. Older than the War of Transgression, anyway." Hope watched the robot curiously.

"Two thousand years?" Cait Sith seemed shocked.

"I've was in crystal stasis for five hundred years. I was lucky though; Fang was there with me. We're going to tell everyone all about Gran Pulse and what it was like back then. You can tell all of us what it was like two thousand years ago!" Vanille smiled.

Cait Sith gave a small smile. "Hopefully things are very different now than they were back then."


	3. Clues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Hope and Vanille had snuck the robot out to show it around, which of course meant that Lightning was forced to meet the ridiculous looking thing. And so she found herself in the common room listening to Cait Sith talk.

The little robot's machinery was basic, but the AI was quite sophisticated. If she didn't know better, she'd believe a human was controlling it. At first the robot was difficult to understand, but the more they talked, the clearer his speech got as if he was adjusting for the pronunciation drift due to time.

"So the world was ruled by a power company? Are you sure you're not making this up?" Lightning gave Cait Sith a skeptical look.

"Technically there was a government, but it was little more than a figurehead. Shinra was the one in control of everything from transport to the military, but its most important monopoly was mako," Cait Sith explained.

The robot painted a description of the ancient world in broad strokes with few names and only major details, since what he was telling them seemed bizarre enough to begin with and was further impeded by the fact the robot had little understanding of the current world to draw analogies from.

The Shinra, a power company, ruled the world with a monopoly on mako energy. Lightning thought they sounded similar to Sanctum, except Sanctum used fear instead of energy.

Cait Sith told them mako was refined and condensed lifestream. Somehow the Shinra got power for lights and trains out of it. Mako could be further condensed and be used for spells by people and somehow those people weren't l'cie. Despite the fact that touching mako was a good way to get mutated into a monster, Shinra had found a way to use it to create soldiers with superhuman abilities to protect their rule. But the process eventually either drove the soldiers mad, mutated them, or both.

Using monsters as soldiers… Lightning thought of how the fal'cie used the superhuman abilities of the l'cie for their own purposes before casting them away to become cie'th or crystals. At least the bioweapons that Cocoon used were never human.

Believing mako was killing the planet, an eco-terrorist group called AVALANCHE began blowing up reactors before they discovered that Shinra's former general was trying to call Meteor to destroy the world and make himself a god. They stopped the general, but at a terrible cost.

Humans had survived. Midgar hadn't. Cait Sith's memories ended less then a year thereafter.

In an effort to lighten the mood Vanille changed the subject. "So what kind of robot are you anyway? A pet?"

Lightning wouldn't admit it, but part of her had been wondering about the robot's appearance herself. Cait Sith seemed strangely well informed for something that looked like it should be surrounded by children under five.

"I can tell fortunes, but I was created for spying." Cait Sith puffed up his chest proudly.

"You. A spy?" Lightning gave the robot an incredulous look. "A cat riding a moogle isn't very incognito."

"I spied on AVALANCHE for Shinra before I switched sides!"

"The leader of AVALANCHE must have been crazy," Lightning muttered. There was no way that could have ever been a good idea. Letting a known spy continue to follow you around? That was like letting a thief into your group after they had stolen from you. It was just asking for them to steal from you again.

"He was sane at the time!" Cait Sith waved his arms in agitation. "Granted they didn't want me around after they found out I was a spy, but I persuaded them to let me stay. I can be very persuasive when I want to be, you know. And I proved myself too! I sacrificed one of my bodies so we could get the black materia before anyone else!"

"I thought you said the crazy general used the black materia to summon Meteor?" Lightning raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah… well… that was a not-so-sane moment… and completely not my fault! We got it back again …temporarily…but we stopped everything in the end!"

AVALANCHE was starting to sound like they were more ill prepared for saving the world then their own group had been. They must have stopped Meteor through sheer dumb luck. The general probably made some sort of catastrophic error, or perhaps insanity was affecting his judgment. How you ended up getting something stolen from you when your enemy ran around with a giant pink moogle was beyond her.

OOO

Snow sighed in frustration. Titan hadn't been in the valley. The trenches the fal'cie had dug remained, but there was no sign of the gargantuan creature. They had searched the area for hours to no avail. How a creature that large could leave no sign of its passing was beyond him.

Now they were even more in the dark than before.

"You know, I think I've seen that crystal Titan was digging around in before." Fang paused with her hand on the gate to the chocobo stables.

"Where?" Snow perked up.

"They have a large one in the artifact warehouse Hope works at. Looks similar anyway."

"Have they found out anything about it?" Maybe the trip wasn't a total waste after all.

Fang shrugged. "You'd have to ask Hope."

It was a lead, at least. Snow found Hope up to his elbows in brittle, yellowed papers.

"Hey there, backed up in paperwork already?" Snow waved when Hope looked up.

"I don't have to fill it out. Just catalog it. Some of this stuff is really weird, though. Apparently Shinra tried to blow Meteor up while it was in space. I'm surprised they could get anything launched to space, much less hit Meteor."

Snow's eyes scanned the room and found the large crystal half under a tarp just like Fang had said. "Do you know anything about this crystal? We saw some like it in the foothills where Titan was digging around."

Hope shook his head. "Nobody's sure what it is. It feels sort of… strange… if you leave your hand on it too long. I haven't had the chance to ask Cait Sith about it. He's been occupied answering questions for the rest of the research team since yesterday."

Snow pulled back the tarp and nearly dropped it in surprise. Fang hadn't mentioned the crystal was occupied.

Hope stifled a laugh. "We can go see if Cait Sith's free."

They found Cait Sith at one of the computers reading one of the history databases that Serah had put together for her students. It was kind of funny seeing a robot using a computer.

"A blue-green crystal in the ground?" Cait Sith looked thoughtful at their question. "Sounds like the kind of stuff you find at a natural materia spring."

"Any idea why the fal'cie might be rummaging around in it?" Snow asked.

The cat shrugged. "The Weapons were encased in crystal before they woke."

"Weapons?"

"Giant monsters created by the Planet to reduce the world back to nothing."

"Sounds like something Barthandalus would do. What about humans encased in it?" The large crystal bothered him. It reminded him too much of crystal stasis, and crystal stasis could only mean that fal'cie were involved.

"There's only two people I've ever heard of being encased in the stuff. There was Lucretica and Sephiroth. Both fell into the lifestream."

"Sephiroth was the megalomaniac right?" He didn't like the idea of that guy being around again.

"It can't be him. He was destroyed." Cait looked up at Snow. "I remember Luretica's crystal being clear enough to see her, but I suppose it could have been damaged over time." Cait Sith shook his head. "It doesn't make sense why she would be over here though. Her cave was on the western continent."

The moogle bounced off down the hallway to the catalog room, leaving Snow and Hope to follow. Cait Sith pulled the tarp back and examined the crystal.

The cat sighed. "I suppose it could be anyone. When the lifestream came to the surface during Meteor, it swept a lot of people away."

"Are they still alive?" Hope asked.

"Lucretica seemed to be aware of things happening outside her crystal. And Sephiroth was revived… but they weren't really normal people."

"Maybe we can find a way to wake them up." Putting Fang and Vanille in the garden had worked. Maybe they could do something similar? Snow didn't like the thought of leaving someone stuck like that if they were alive.

"Vincent would know if there was a way. He used to spend time talking to Lucretica. They'd know better than I would about the Weapons as well."

"Where'd he keep his research? Maybe we can find it." Hope seemed excited at the thought of actually getting to explore this time. Snow didn't blame him.

Cait Sith perked up as if realizing something. "It's a small chance… but we might be able to ask Vincent himself."

"I realize you miss your friends… but two thousand years is a long time." Snow felt a little sorry for the little cat.

"No… Vincent was different. He spent thirty years sealed away and hadn't aged a day. There's a chance!"

Well, he supposed it wasn't any stranger than anything else Cait Sith had told them. "Any idea where to find this guy?"

"If he went back to sleep, he'd want to be near Lucrecia."

OOO

While they had been able to see the mouth of the cave from the air, there had been nowhere to land, forcing them to hike up the side of the mountain. The moogle's progress was slow, and the blasted thing kept cheery conversation with the others the whole way. It was as if everyone had forgotten the meaning of silence.

It had taken two long days of travel to get this far. Two days that they weren't there to keep monsters out of the town. Her time as a l'cie had done little to give her faith in the effectiveness of the Guardian Corp and PSICOM. The only reason she had come was that she was unwilling to let her friends face the monsters of the countryside on their own. Snow, Serah and NORA had stayed behind to help protect new Bohdum.

If the fal'cie were going to try and wake up the Weapons to destroy Cocoon then they needed to know everything they could. This Vincent knew more than Cait Sith. Things that might help them.

Gathered together, traversing the countryside on foot and trying to protect Cocoon, it was like they were l'cie again, except without the brand that would turn them into monsters.

The moogle tripped, sending the cat flying into the dirt. Lightning sighed, this was going to be a long trip.

OOO

In his darker moments, Vincent still dreamed of his sins. What if he had been able to stop her? So many people wouldn't have gotten hurt. Meteor never would have fallen. He had done his best to make amends. Though so many had been lost, they had saved some lives at least. He had done what he could during those days when Meteor hung in the sky. Vincent had wandered the Planet for years after that. Searching for further ways to atone. But even his efforts at atonement also led to regrets.

Time moved forward.

He didn't.

Everyone was gone now. Only he remained. Aeris had only been the first. They never found Cloud after the Highwind crashed from being caught in the crossfire between Holy and Meteor. Reeve was killed a few years later by a collapse during salvage efforts. Nananki had lasted the longest, but time eventually caught up with him as well.

Even Lucrecia was starting to fade. Her voice had become softer over the centuries. He hoped she found peace one day at last. She deserved to be freed from her pain and sorrow.

Vincent spoke to her when he was awake. He periodically traveled the world and told her what he had seen, before returning to rest once more. Lucrecia enjoyed hearing about the world and how things changed. She had never lost the sense of curiosity that had made her such a wonderful scientist.

It wasn't much of a life, just existence, but he owed it to her to keep her company. He owed her so much. He couldn't let her languish alone.

Lucrecia lamented not being able to properly disperse into the lifestream. Jenova would never let her die so easily and the lifestream, like an oyster, built up a protective barrier between her and itself. Sephiroth had been the same way in the northern crater, although they eventually had been able to destroy Sephiroth. The process had been brutal and Vincent couldn't bear to do the same to Lucrecia. A selfish part of him liked having one familiar face through the centuries.

Another sin to add to the rest.

Vincent loaded up his pack with supplies. He had slept longer than usual this time and would need to find some new parts for his awakening apparatus. He turned to Lucrecia. Unchanged, she lay within the crystal.

Her ethereal voice drifted through the air. "Something has happened… I hear things in the lifestream…"

"What do you hear?"

"The Planet… and something else"

Was the Planet in danger again? Vincent frowned.

"I'm so sorry..." Her voice was little more than a whisper.

"I'll investigate. Don't worry." Vincent shouldered his pack and exited the cave.


	4. Vincent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit shorter than the previous ones. I was having some trouble with the last couple scenes so they got bumped to the next chapter.
> 
> There's a lot of Vincent in this chapter.

Vanille held a hand up against the sun and peered ahead on the trail. Well, game trail really. The area was nothing but forest and shrubs undisturbed by humans. The nearest city ruins were miles away. Growing up, she had heard about the great cities of the western continent and seen footage of the majestic places there, but she had never been able to go because the war had made travel unsafe. Now only the hollow husks remained. She tried not to dwell on such gloomy thoughts.

The forests were different than those she'd seen before, the trees bore needles rather than flat leaves and there was a distinct chill to the dry air rather than warm humidity. Cait Sith was good company, and even though she hadn't known him long, she already felt a certain sense of camaraderie with him. The world had changed drastically for both of them while they were sleeping.

While it saddened her that people had all but vanished from the face of Gran Pulse, she was glad that new cities were being built and the sounds of joy and laughter would once again fill the air.

A gunshot cut through the air. The forest fell silent in its wake.

Vanille reached for her weapon, ready for whatever came next. Light stood at the edge of the game trail peering into the foliage. Another shot. This time the sounds of snapping and splintering wood followed. An inhuman shriek of pain. Then silence.

"What was that?" Hope's voice was barely above a whisper.

Cait Sith gave a gasp of surprise and bounded off in the direction of the ruckus.

"Now just wait a minute!" Sazh followed the moogle. "You can't just go running off! There's monsters!"

Vanille and Hope gave chase as well. Leaving Light no choice but to bring up the rear. The moogle's large body barreled a path through the woods, leading them into a small clearing.

A man dressed in red and black wielding a long barreled gun of some sort stood next to the bodies of two monsters. He looked up at them as they crashed through the underbrush.

"Vincent!" The moogle bounded toward the man.

"…Reeve?" Vincent's voice was soft and laced with disbelief.

"Just Cait Sith." The robot looked sad for a moment before perking up again. "We've been looking for you!"

Vincent just stared at the robot.

"Don't worry, these people are friends. They repaired me." He gestured to each of them, naming them off as he went.

"Pleased to meet you!" Vanille smiled. She hadn't actually thought that they would find Vincent himself, but she was glad for Cait Sith. Being lost in another time by yourself was frightening.

Vincent inclined his head towards her. His accent was different than Cait Sith's, lighter and easier to understand. "Perhaps we should catch up in a quieter location."

He was strange, but he didn't seem to be a bad guy.

OOO

Vincent evaluated Cait Sith's companions. They appeared to be capable enough, but he was under no illusion that this was a social call. He was glad to see Cait Sith, even if Reeve was no longer controlling the robot; he could see pieces of his friend's personality in the AI.

Cait's companions gave him a summary of events he had missed: the War of Transgression and subsequent near fall of Cocoon, as well as the current troubles that plagued New Bohdum. He had been surprised to hear of the rediscovery of Midgar, though he should have known that it would someday return to haunt him.

"Cait Sith here thinks that you might be able to help us figure out what the fal'cie are up to." Sazh spoke up from where he was leaning against a tree.

"Like the Weapons, the fal'cie have always put the needs of the Planet before those of humans." Vincent's tones were even and measured.

Sazh shook his head. "The fal'cie serve the Maker. At least that's what we've always been told."

"And who made them, but the Planet? The only difference between fal'cie and Weapons is the degree of freedom they possess. You say the fal'cie were trying to call the maker by destroying Cocoon. The threat of a large injury against the Planet would force it to react, just as it did against Meteor. Instead, you stopped it and the Planet didn't have to interfere." Vincent paused for a moment. "Lucrecia says the Planet has grown quieter. Perhaps the fal'cie can no longer hear the planet." He looked thoughtful. "Humans used to hear the planet long ago, but forgot how."

"So trying to destroy Cocoon was an act of desperation?" Sazh looked like he didn't like that idea.

Vincent shrugged. "Just a theory."

"There's one other thing. We found a crystal with a person in it… do you know if there's a way to free them?" Vanille looked up at him with a face full of hope.

Vincent shook his head. He hadn't heard of anyone else being encased as Lucrecia. But whomever it was most likely had Jenova cells. Either they were a high-ranking First Class or one of Hojo's experiments.

"Is Lucrecia still behind the waterfall?" Cait Sith asked.

"Yes." Vincent didn't want to discuss her in front of others. There was too much history. He'd offered to try and free her many times, but she'd always refused. She had her reasons, namely fear of the Jenova cells she possessed, but he still mourned being unable to travel with her.

Cait Sith caught on to his tone and let further questions go. For now. "Will you come with us?"

Vincent was silent for a long moment before nodding.

They were heading down the mountain to where the plane was parked when the questions started up again. Vanille, wanted to hear stories about the past, while Sazh, Fang, and Lightning wanted to know about the Weapons. He gave short, concise answers to questions he deemed relevant to the situation. Explaining everything would take too much time and wasn't necessary, in his opinion. Lightning frowned at his answers. His taciturn nature had served him well as a Turk, but tended to aggravate some people.

Cait Sith frowned at his poor conversational skills. The cat turned to Vanille and Hope. "You want to hear some stories? Well there was this one time Reeve and Vincent were in this military transport and these monsters started chasing us. Vincent was using the machine gun on them and everything was going well. Then somehow he gets it into his head that it would be better to jump up on top of the transport and shoot them with a handgun from up there."

"It was a perfectly valid tactic at the time." Vincent grumbled.

Vanille stifled a giggle.

OOO

Lightning had claimed first watch for the night and so paced quietly around the camp while the others attempted to sleep.

They were a day out from New Bohdum. Vincent had raised an eyebrow upon seeing their plane but seemed to take the technology in stride. Then again, Fang and Vanille had adapted to modern technology easily enough even if their knowledge of history was sorely lacking.

Lightning wasn't sure she trusted Vincent. It was clear he was only telling them what was absolutely necessary and nothing more. The man had more secrets than buckles on his outfit. Cait Sith was free enough with knowledge, but even the robot seemed to be holding back at times.

Neither of them was willing to elaborate on how Vincent managed to live for two thousand years. Cait Sith would only tell them that Vincent had been modified, and would claim it wasn't his secret to tell when pressed. Vincent refused to say anything on the matter. The only thing that was clear was that he hadn't survived by crystal stasis. They had bigger things to worry about, but that wouldn't keep her from watching them closely.

There were enough unknowns when it came to the fal'cie. She felt like they were flying blind. Last time, the fal'cie had herded them from place to place in their grand scheme and it was only at the end that they had managed to defy their fate. This time, it seemed the fal'cie could care less about them and were leaving them flailing about in the dark and scrambling to catch up. She knew they were getting closer to discovering their scheme, like there was just one vital element missing and if they could find it the puzzle would fall into place.

"Something on your mind?" Fang stood in the small trail Lightning was attempting to form by the camp.

"We're missing something."

Fang tilted her head in an invitation to continue.

"What is the fal'cie's goal in attacking New Bohdum? If they were trying to call the Maker, wouldn't they be attacking the Cocoon Pillar?"

"Maybe they want to end their existence. Maybe there's something else agitating them. Either way, we know they're behind it. We take them out and it doesn't matter what their plans were."

"But if we get close to the fal'cie, they'll just mark us as l'cie again. We escaped our fate once, but pulling it off a second time would be a miracle."

"There were a few times back then that we all thought defying our focus was impossible. Don't give up so easy."

"Are you saying we should try to become l'cie again?" Lighting turned to look at her.

Fang shook her head. "I'm not saying we shouldn't look into all other avenues first but if it comes to that, it comes to that." She gazed up at the moon, lost in thought.


	5. Corrupted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just kept going and going. On the bright side, the next chapter is a third of the way done already.

Serah pushed open the door to the classroom. The door got stuck halfway, but she managed to squeeze inside despite the rubble blocking it. The first few rows of desks were smashed and broken glass from the window glinted in the sunlight. Papers and projects torn from the walls littered the floor. The walls were pockmarked with rifle fire.

Serah righted what desks she could before retrieving a broom and small can of plaster for the holes in the wall. She needed to at least get the glass off the floor before the children came. The teachers whose rooms weren’t hit by last nights monster attack helped those who were and together they began to put the classrooms right again.

The lights overhead flickered. The generators must be malfunctioning again. The generators were flaky and had to be transported back and forth from Cocoon for repairs, a laborious and expensive process that desperately needed a viable alternative. But what they really needed was to find a way to create energy on Pulse. Something green from nature. Energy from the planet they could refine and use, not something created by the fal’cie.

There were those on Cocoon who thought they were crazy for moving to Pulse and throwing away the gifts of the fal’cie. “Hell on Earth” they called it. It was what they had been told all their lives after all. Pulse was a place where monsters attacked constantly and where the fal’cie didn’t provide for humans, that it was a place where the fal’cie were little more than giant monsters themselves. Yet those who had relocated to Pulse had brought themselves together as a community, built things together with their own hands and worked towards their dreams together. And to Serah, that was priceless.

No matter how many things the monsters smashed, they would be there to rebuild. They wouldn’t lose.

OOO

Snow leaned against the wall, catching his breath from the latest battle. He wouldn’t admit that the battles were beginning to wear him down. Snow couldn’t bring himself to sit one out though. He had to keep fighting. He didn’t want any regrets.

Repairs to the damage were already under way. Serah was already at the school getting ready. He should help her. Snow pushed himself away from the wall and began to make his way through the repair efforts.

He had gotten a call from the others that morning filling him in. Serah had been thrilled by the news. It was progress and she took heart from the smallest victories.

He hadn’t gotten far from the battlefield when frantic shouts came from behind him. He spun around to see the Guardian Corp taking up defensive positions. Not again! He ran towards them. “NORA! Time for some more action!” 

The monsters were unlike those they had seen before. They crashed and climbed over the incomplete wall, their claws leaving gouges in stone and metal. Smaller monsters flooded about the feet of the larger ones. Their bodies were twisted and strange, clawed and serpentine. Each one was a hodgepodge of shapes rather than cohesive. Everything about them was slightly off. Unnatural. 

Bullets flew. Snow took position and began taking out those that got past the firing line. A fist in the gut of one. A kick to the teeth of another. On reflex he ducked. The one of the larger monsters went over his head, crashing into the side of the artifact warehouse across the street. The cheap construction crumbled, sending a cascade of debris onto the ancient artifacts. Sparks of green light flashed out of the ruined room turning into tendrils of green that sank into the ground and disappeared.

The monsters turned to where the strange green tendrils had been. One misshapen beast reared back. “Re… Reee… Reeeun… Ooon…” The beast lurched forward. It only made a couple steps before a Guardian Corp rocket launcher destroyed its upper body.

Had that monster just spoke? Snow stared dumbfounded. He barely had just enough time to duck when the next monster slashed.

Snow slammed a fist into an oversized eye. Viscous fluid burst, splattering all over him and dripping into his face. Viciously he rubbed as much off as he could and braced himself for the next attack. Briefly he wished for magic, at least then he could be out of splatter range.

Gunfire only seemed to slow them down; the monsters kept crawling forward, trying to attack until they no longer possessed any more limbs to move. Only then did they slowly dissolve back into the ground. Those who used close range weapons proved more effective and took the forefront, keeping the monsters back from those providing support.

Eventually, the last monster fell. There had been fewer monsters compared to the previous wave, but they hadn’t gone down easy. Snow wiped off as much splatter and gore as he could. He was still filthy, but at least he felt a little better.

The Guardian Corp began moving the injured and the bodies of the dead. Only monsters dissolved upon death. Those not occupied with either grim task began to clear debris out of the roads. Monster attacks couldn’t be allowed to keep the city down.

The game had changed somehow. He had never seen monsters like those before. That one monster… It had almost sounded like it was trying to say something but when did monsters start speaking? Reun On? Did that even mean anything or was it just mindless noise?

Snow took a deep breath and headed over to the warehouse. He couldn’t do anything about monsters learning to talk. But he could check on where that green flash came from. He climbed through the broken wall and was greeted by twisted wreckage. The artifacts had never been in good shape, but now they were little more than pieces. Shards of something clear and glittering scattered the floor. 

The crystal.

It had shattered. The tarp lay over its broken remains like a funeral shroud, the shape of the body beneath adding to the effect. Snow steeled himself and lifted it. Freed from the confines of the crystal lay the body of a man wearing a sword.

He was breathing.

OOO

“Snow, this better not be a social call.” Lightning had hoped by now Snow had learned better, but then again, it was Snow.

“Light, don’t hang up! This is important!”

She sighed. “Go on.”

“First, I need you to find out if anyone’s ever heard of a monster that can talk.” 

“Is this a joke?”

“We had two monster attacks this morning less than an hour apart. The second one had these monsters we’d never seen before.” Snow gave her a cursory description of the creatures. “One of them sounded like it was trying to speak. It said something that sounded like: reaun on.”

Lightning sighed. Why he was calling her and not someone else she had no idea. He had probably just dialed the first number he found. Idiot. Lightning had enough to deal with already without Snow adding his crazy ideas to the mess. Nevertheless she relayed his question and description.

“I’ve never heard of a monster that looked like that. Much less talked. Maybe it just resembled speech?” Fang looked skeptical.

“The only monster I can think of that talks is a Magic Pot. But they just demand elixirs.” Cait Sith shrugged.

“They don’t match the description for that.” Vincent shifted in his corner of the plane.

“Reau on? …Reunion!” Vanile looked pleased with her deduction.

Fang looked amused. “I thought reunions were when families got together, swapped stories, and avoided that one creepy relative. I don’t see why a monster would use that as their war cry, Vanille.” 

“They could be cie’th. Maybe they regained their minds for a moment. Maybe they wanted to be reunited with people.” Vanille dimmed at the thought.

Vincent somehow looked grimmer than before, but Cait Sith looked alarmed.

“You know something.” Lightning pinned them under her gaze.

Vincent remained impassive, but Cait Sith squirmed. “Reunion is what happens when the cells of a creature called Jenova are separated and try to draw back together.”

Vincent gave Cait Sith a critical look, as if he was trying to gauge how much the robot had already told them.

“What does this Jenova have to do with anything?” Lightning was determined to get some real answers this time.

“Remember the general I told you about? Jenova is part of the reason he went insane. The high ranking First Class soldiers all had living Jenova cells in them in addition to the mako. Some of the other human experiments did too.” Cait Sith seemed increasingly distressed. “The clones… we ran into them when we were trying to stop Sephiroth. They would constantly babble about Reunion. When Jenova cells are separated they inevitably draw back together. They called it reunion.” 

“You think that has something to do with this?” She raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t understand! Jenova was already ancient when these experiments were run. She was the Calamity from the Skies that nearly destroyed the Planet once already. If Jenova somehow still exists she could be infecting monsters.”

“Infecting monsters and sending them to attack New Bohdum you mean.” It would explain why monsters were attacking the city, but it still didn’t explain the strange actions of the fal’cie. 

A faint voice from her phone broke her train of thought. She’d forgotten Snow was still on the line. Parroting everything back didn’t appeal to her, nor was it an efficient way to hold a conversation. “We have some possibilities. We’ll discuss them with you when we return.” Lightning hung up before Snow could protest. They’d be back before the evening assault anyway.

OOO

Holy and lifestream. White and blue-green mixed in an explosion of light. Energy and twisting metal. Then nothing. 

Nothing but green. Green and memories. He heard others, but they were far away. Muffled through thick glass. He floated. Lost.

They spoke, discussed. Intonations. Feelings. Sorrow. Green soaked knowledge. They hmmed and hawed and lectured. He had no choice but to listen. At least the screams had stopped.

I want to take you back to your real self.

His consciousness kept slipping. There was nothing to focus on, but nowhere to go. Everything burned. How much time had passed? There was no way to tell and no one would say.

Without warning his world lurched, tilted, tipped… then everything exploded.

Wake up, my child.

Pins and needles, aches and burns littered across his body. He felt as if his entire body had fallen asleep. Whispers hummed in the back of his mind. Cloud cracked open an eye. The light was like the jab of a needle. Blearily, he forced himself to move while the world attempted to focus around him. 

The smell hit him. Antiseptic and bleach. A voice floated down the hall saying something about everything being ready for the doctor. Horror roiled through him. The green soaked prison.

No.

Not again.

Never again.

Heart hammering against his ribs, sick at the very thought, he forced his body to move. His sleeping limbs responded numbly and he all but fell off the cot he’d been placed on. He scrambled to steady himself. Out. There had to be a way out. He had to get out. He barely registered opening the door and tearing off through the hallway, darting past startled white coats. 

His brain only caught up with him when he was more than halfway down the street. He slumped against a building, shaking. Hospital. He’d woken up in a hospital, not a lab. The mako-soaked memory must have been a nightmare. Had the Highwind crashed? He remembered something hitting them... then nothing.

His sword was gone, but his materia was still in his bangle. It was strange. Why had they had taken his sword but nothing else? People on the street gave him strange looks as they passed by; their clothes were brightly colored and in a style he’d never seen before. He glanced at the buildings. The closest he’d seen to them was in Mideel and even then there was still a large margin of difference.

Where was he? Where was everyone else?

Cloud fished out his PHS, but it was no use. The battery was dead. He sighed in frustration. There had to be some way to get in contact with them. Maybe he could find a payphone? With no better options, Cloud picked a direction and began walking.

People moved about in a bustle of activity, but the sounds of pistons and propellers were strangely absent. Even in the smallest of towns you could hear at least one noisy engine. Instead there was a pervasive mechanical buzz and whirr that he couldn’t identify. 

A strange object flew by, and Cloud nearly reached for his missing sword on reflex. It looked like a motorcycle but it was missing wheels and somehow hovered above the ground without propellers. He stared long after the strange craft was gone. Either Cloud was hallucinating or he had somehow ended up in some strange city with impossible technology. The former almost seemed more likely given his track record with reality. 

He sighed and looked up at the horizon, hoping to see a familiar mountain range or some other landmark in the sky he could use to get his bearings. There, he saw the one thing he was hoping to never see again.

Meteor.

A strange crystal structure surrounded it holding it above the Planet like an axe hovering over their necks. Had holy done that? It was a reprieve, but they’d still have to find some way to destroy it. 

He wouldn’t let Meteor destroy the planet.


	6. Those Who Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your reviews!
> 
> In case there was any confusion, I'll clarify things here: Cloud got trapped in the crystal during the ending of FFVII. So he has no idea what ultimately happened to Meteor. AC never happened.
> 
> I ended up rewriting the last two scenes of this chapter at least four times. For some reason, it's always the last scene in a chapter that gives me the most trouble.

The engines of the aircraft hummed quietly. Vincent's new companions talked among themselves, occasionally trying to draw him into the conversation. Cait Sith talked enough for both of them, though what the cat said had very little of value compared to the amount of words coming out of his mouth.

Inevitably, the conversation returned to the problems at hand. The prospect of Reunion worried Vincent. Jenova and Sephiroth had been difficult enough to defeat the first time around. They had thought that all of the clones had died during Reunion, but if one had survived, what had prompted them to move now? How had it survived for two thousand years? Perhaps part of Jenova's body hadn't been destroyed? Any part cut off from the main body was capable of forming into a monstrous creature. They had seen and fought that often enough. Jenova had proved patient enough to wait thousands of years once already. If humans hadn't been living on the surface of the Planet until recently, perhaps it was a lack of opportunity?

If any of Hojo and Gast's research remained somewhere, perhaps it would provide some more clues about Reunion, but he didn't know these people well enough to determine if he could trust that sort of information to them. The prospect of super soldiers was far too tempting for many and from what he had heard of Sanctum, they were far too similar to Shinra for his tastes.

Cait Sith's voice drew him out of his pensive thoughts. "If we can find a more effective way of keeping these new monsters suppressed, it'll buy us time to find the source of them. How many people specialize in swords? From what Snow told us, it sounds like those would be more efficient than guns."

"The gunblade is rather specialized. Not many know how to use it effectively." Lightning's voice held a note of pride to it. "Combined with AMP, I could probably make short work of a small group of monsters."

"What about regular swords?"

"No one uses those anymore. I'm surprised they still did in yours. You had guns, didn't you?"

"No one thought to combine them with a sword. There were some monsters that it was just more effective to use blades and SOLDIERS did more damage without them," Vincent said.

"If AVALANCHE was still around I'd say just throw Cloud at the monsters. Sure, he'd be angry and wouldn't speak to you for the rest of the day, but at least they'd be dead." Cait Sith chuckled.

Vanille laughed. "Sounds kind of like Lightning."

The corner of Vincent's mouth twitched upward at the memory. It'd been Barret and Cid's way of pulling Cloud out of a slump, but they hadn't realized that the monster buried in the desert had been the Ruby Weapon. The tentacles had batted them away and kept them from joining the fight. Vincent had never seen Cloud cast summons so fast before.

"We have to work with what we have available in the present, not reminiscing on what we could have used in the past." Lightning reminded them.

"How many good spell casters do we have?" Vincent asked.

"Only l'cie can use magic."

"Vincent, they don't know what materia is."

Well, this was going to make things difficult.

OOO

Serah balanced the folder of student work in one arm while she locked the classroom door. She'd stayed later than she'd planned grading quizzes and now daylight was beginning to fail. Light and the others would be back any minute, if they weren't already. Serah was hoping she'd at least catch them before they went out on monster patrol. Shifting the folders in her arms she adjusted the bow she had slung against her back. Ever practical, it had been a gift from Light for evenings like this when she stayed late at the school.

The quickest route home took her though a park. The trees were small, just tall enough for a bit of shade, but not so tall as to allow monsters to drop down onto people. The grass was rough and disrupted by gouges and burns from explosives and the hedges were little more than charcoal in places. Black marks decorated the stone benches and strategically placed art sculptures. The park was often engaged as a battleground since it was close to the wall. There was just enough cover for troops to utilize, while the space allowed for minimizing damage to buildings.

In the washed out twilight, Serah almost didn't see the person standing next to the fountain. He was looking up at the sky as if he were expecting it to fall on him at any moment. Even with the strange behavior aside, he looked completely out of place. His clothing was of a style she'd never seen before and he wore a heavy metal bangle decorated by colorful marbles on one wrist.

"What are you doing?" Serah asked. Everyone knew you didn't linger outside in the evenings.

He turned at the sound of her voice and Serah stifled a gasp. His eyes glowed with an eerie bioluminescence. "How far is it to a gate in the wall?" His accent was thick and unfamiliar.

"There's one at the south end of town." Serah frowned at his question. "Monsters attack at twilight. You should get somewhere safe."

He made no indication of hearing her warning, instead loosing himself in thought.

Serah indecisively took a few steps. She would miss the others if she lingered, but she couldn't just leave him here. Not with the way the monster attacks had been going. "It's not safe to stay here."

He looked up at her. "What city is this?"

Had he hit his head? "New Bohdum."

"Are we on the eastern continent?"

"…are you from Pulse?"

He looked at her strangely, as if she was the one asking the odd questions.

"Did you just wake up from crystal stasis?" she asked. It was the only possibility that made any sense. Serah remembered how disorienting it had been for her, and she'd only been in crystal stasis for a handful of months.

Whatever response he might have given was cut off by the scrape of claws against metal.

OOO

Snow picked up his trench coat and headed for the door. Serah should have been back by now. The others would be arriving soon and they had planned on going out together to meet Light and the others at the airfield, but Serah was late and daylight was fading.

She probably lost track of time grading papers, Snow told himself. But the uneasy feeling that had been building all day wouldn't let him be content with that conclusion. He'd meet her on her way back. Then they'd go and greet everyone.

Snow set off on the path that Serah usually took coming to and from the school grounds. With any luck he'd meet her halfway. He only made it a couple of blocks before the sounds of battle could be heard in the distance. He ran. Firearms could be heard to his left, but monster shrieks were also coming from ahead of him and the sounds of the Guardian Corp were strangely absent. Rationally, he knew the Guardian Corp and PSICOM were stretched thin and were probably at the other battle site, but it mattered little when he knew Serah was in danger.

A large bolt of lightning struck the ground up ahead, somewhere in the vicinity of the park. The sky was clear.

"What the hell?"

Another bolt struck. The air had acquired a strange feeling of energy to it. Magic.

There was a l'cie nearby.

OOO

The pink-haired girl was using some kind of kind of strange bow he'd never seen before. When the monsters attacked, she had warned him to get to shelter. Cloud ignored her and instead cast Thundaga. The girl gaped at him like she'd never seen magic before. Fortunately, she recovered before the monster did.

The fight was a dance of dodging, casting, and sneaking in punches and kicks when the creatures got too close. The lightning was working, but not fast enough. Together they had already taken out two of the creatures but there were still eight more of them. The last thing he wanted was for the fight to drag out when he didn't have a proper blade.

Cloud dodged the sweep of a tail, leaping back farther than necessary to give himself some space so he could charge up the spell. It would probably be overkill, but at the moment he could care less.

"Get back!" he shouted at the girl. She was firing arrows and far to close to the monsters.

She scrambled backwards firing an arrow into the throat of a monster that tried to follow her retreat.

Cloud released the spell. A bright spark of green flew into the midst of the monsters and exploded. The concussion of green energy tore the creatures apart sending limbs and entrails flying. For a brief moment after the impact of Ultima there was a crater of gore before the monsters began to dissolve into the lifestream.

"Serah!"A tall man in a tan coat was running towards them. He swept the girl, Serah, into a hug. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. We managed to fight them off."

The man turned to Cloud. "Huh, it figures you'd be the l'cie. Glad to see you're out of the hospital. That was quite the spell you cast there." He extended his hand with a grin. "Snow Villiers."

"Cloud Strife." They shook hands.

"Do you know what your focus is?" Serah asked.

Focus? He had no idea what they meant by that. Zack didn't know anything helpful either.

Snow misinterpreted his look of confusion. "That's okay, Fang didn't know her focus after waking up from crystal stasis either. We'll help you figure it out. How far along is your brand?"

Cloud frowned. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"We aren't going to hurt you. We were turned into Pulse l'cie a few years ago." Serah was doing her best to be reassuring.

"I don't know anything about brands or l'cie. What is Pulse anyway?" Frustration was starting to seep into his voice. About the only thing that had made sense since waking up in the hospital was the monster attack.

Both of them looked at him like he had just sprouted a wing. Suddenly worried, glanced behind himself. Still normal.

"Have you lost your memory?" Serah's voice was gentle.

Cloud wasn't sure how to answer that. He'd lost memories before, but he'd never forgotten how the world worked. "I don't remember losing any memories recently," he said dryly.

Snow was still looking at him strangely. "What happened to your eyes?"

It took him a second to realize what Snow was referring to. "I've been infused with Mako."

"Mako…?" A sudden realization flashed across Snow's face. "You're like that robot!"

"Robot?" Somehow he got the feeling he wasn't going to like this conversation.

"We found this robot who told us a story about lifestream and Mako."

"Mako _is_ lifestream." Please tell him that these weren't the kind of people who never doubted Shinra propaganda.

"Have you really never heard of the fal'cie?" Serah asked. "The ones from Pulse take care of the land and the ones in Cocoon took care of everything… but sometimes fal'cie mark people and give them a focus."

A cult. He must have somehow ended up in the middle of a cult.

"Let's go somewhere inside and we'll explain everything to you alright?" Serah gave him a reassuring smile.

Cloud sighed in exhaustion and then nodded. He was tired of nothing making sense, of nothing being familiar. He wished he had his sword. At least then, he'd feel less vulnerable. Cloud turned and looked across the park, half hoping more monsters would appear. At least then he wouldn't have to think about anything.


	7. Anxious Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Still don’t own it.
> 
> A/N: This chapter went through several different versions before I settled on the right version of events. Several important things happen and I needed to make sure they came out right. Lot of talking this chapter but there’ll be plenty of action coming up next.
> 
> Enjoy.

Lightning flicked the blood of her gunblade before replacing it in its sheath. They had seen the monsters approaching while in the air and had just managed to land before they arrived. Experience had eased the battle; these were monsters they had faced many times before. Sounds of fighting elsewhere in the city echoed around them. It would seem the monsters had tried for multiple fronts this time, but this area at least for the time being, was clear.

 

Vincent had proved to be a valuable ally in battle. He was quick and accurate with his gun, able to leap out of the way and kill his target at the same time. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Cait Sith. The moogle had comically tried to punch at the monsters that got close to it, but annoyed the monsters more than anything else, forcing Sazh and Vanille to cover the robot. Now that the battle was over, Cait Sith drooped as if ashamed of how little help he had been.

 

“Be alert. Snow said there was a second attack in the morning.” Lightning’s companions nodded, each of them at the ready.

 

“Snow’s probably around somewhere. Should we meet up with him?” Fang scanned their surroundings.

 

Lightning considered it for a moment before deciding. She pulled out her phone and dialed. “Snow. Where are you?” As Snow spoke, Lightning frowned. When he finished, she sighed. “We’ll meet you there.” She put her phone away.

 

“What’s happened?” Hope looked at her curiously.

 

“They found a l’cie who said something about mako.” The explanation had been hurried and chaotic. Lightning wouldn’t be surprised if Snow didn’t know what was going on himself.

 

Hope frowned. “Do they know their focus?”

 

“Snow thinks he doesn’t know. Apparently he just woke up from that crystal from the warehouse.” While it concerned Lightning, she wasn’t surprised. Lightning wouldn’t put it past the fal’cie to send more l’cie to try and finish off Cocoon.

 

Vincent and Cait Sith exchanged a look.

 

“One of the clones?” Cait Sith looked worried.

 

Vincent said nothing, his face impassive.

 

Lightning clenched her jaw. They didn’t want to share information? Fine. She’d see for herself. “We’re meeting up with Snow and Serah in the common room.”

 

It didn’t take long to reach the housing complex.

 

Lightning all but threw open the door. Snow and Serah were seated across from a strangely dressed blond man. He looked up at Lightning as she entered, assessing her as if she were a potential threat, while Lightning did the same. He was lean, but athletic and though he had no visible weapons, l’cie always had magic as backup. Apparently the glowing eyes weren’t just an exaggeration, as she initially thought. The glow had a strange, disturbing beauty to it.

 

His assessment finished, his gaze slid back to those who entered behind her. He shot up out of his seat. “Vincent!”

 

“…Cloud?” Vincent stared at him as if seeing a ghost.

 

“Are you alright? Where are the others? What happened after the Highwind crashed?”

 

With an exclamation, Cait Sith launched himself at Cloud, interrupting whatever Vincent may have said.

 

“Good to see you, Cait Sith.” Cloud pried the cat off him and set it on the moogle. “…Why is Meteor still in the sky? Did Holy fail?”

 

Lightning frowned. “Meteor?”

 

 He sighed in frustration. “You know, the big giant rock in the sky about to fall and kill everyone?”

 

“That’s Cocoon. And it’s not going to fall. We made sure of that.” Lightning crossed her arms.

 

Cloud gave her a look.

 

Lightning’s expression remained steady.

 

“Cloud… Meteor Crisis was two thousand years ago,” Vincent said quietly.

 

Cloud gave Vincent a look of complete disbelief.

 

“It’s true.” Cait Sith spoke up. “We stopped Meteor but you were trapped in a crystal, just like Sephiroth was in the Whirlwind Maze. We didn’t find out until now.”

 

OOO

 

Cloud couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It had to be some sort of horrible joke.

 

It had to be a lie.

 

Cait Sith fidgeted. “Holy was able to stop Meteor but Midgar was destroyed in the process. People survived and rebuilt other cities. Mako energy was abandoned when the reactors were never rebuilt and the remains of Shinra shut down the other three. Reeve worked hard to get that to happen. People didn’t want to change.” The cat’s ears drooped.

 

“Close to seven hundred years later, these Weapon-like creatures called the fal’cie appeared. ” Vincent explained. “Unlike the Weapons, they ignored humanity and instead took up shaping the planet. Centuries later, the fal’cie created Cocoon and people began to live inside of it. Cocoon was floating back then. The crystal around it is new.”

 

It couldn’t be real. It had to be Sephiroth. Some illusion cooked up to confuse him. Sephiroth had created illusions before.

 

_But they were illusions of the truth that you couldn’t face._

 

“This… isn’t real is it?” Cloud said softly. He looked up at Vincent. “This has to be an illusion.”

 

Vincent’s voice was solemn. “Cloud, it’s not an illusion.”

 

It couldn’t be true. It did make a horrible kind of sense with what he had seen outside… the impossible looking vehicles and the odd building style. But if it was true, then everyone else would have been dead for thousands of years but Vincent and Cait Sith were right there…

 

_A robot and a man that doesn’t age._

 

No…

 

If thousands of years had passed, it meant everyone would have passed through the Lifestream several times already and there’d be nothing left he’d recognize. They could be a bird or a tree or fish… Everything about them was gone, lost to time.

 

“It can’t be…” Cloud sank down into the sofa, shoulders slumped. “It can’t…”

 

“I’m sorry,” Vincent said gently.

 

Everyone was gone. Dust. No longer even in the Lifestream.

 

 

OOO

 

 

Lebreau was wiping off the counter of the bar when the door opened. It was a bit early for people to be resuming activities so soon after the fighting, but not terribly so. The woman looked solemn, almost sad.

 

“Can I get you something?” Lebreau put the rag away and walked around the counter.

 

 “Just some water, please.” The woman’s voice was soft. She had a matronly appearance to her, but still held onto her beauty, like one of those fit, active, outdoorsy mothers. The woman took the glass of water and cradled it in her hands.

 

“Were you caught outside during the fighting?” Lebreau asked.

 

The woman nodded. “I was looking for my son. He’s been missing.”

 

“How long?”

 

“Too long. He ran away after his brother died.”

 

Lebreau felt nothing but sympathy. To loose one child and then have the other run away… It was a miracle the woman wasn’t a wreck, or perhaps numbness had just set in. “I’m sure he’ll turn up safe.”

 

“I know he will.” She turned the glass in her hands, studying the condensation gathering on the sides. “I can feel him out there. He’ll come home eventually. It’s just a matter of time.” The woman smiled softly. “Someday we’ll sail the stars together.”

 

“They’ll have to invent space travel first.” Lebreau smiled as well.

 

“I’m sure the fal’cie will help us find a way into space.”

 

More people began to filter into the bar and Lebreau found herself bouncing between customers filling order after order, but her mind kept returning to the woman. Maybe NORA could help the woman find her son? It wasn’t safe for a kid to be on his own with the way monsters had been attacking. She was sure Snow wouldn’t object and Serah would probably insist on it if she found out. But by the time she found a lull in orders, only the empty water glass remained.

 

OOO

 

They had gotten Cloud and Vincent set up in a nearby hotel and arranged to meet them early the next morning. Most of the others had retired for the night as well, leaving only Sazh and Vanille in the common room.

 

 “I don’t think that kid took the news too well. Hell, I’m surprised you two took things as well as you did. Probably never would have found out if you hadn’t told us.” Sazh sighed and shook his head.

 

Vanille kicked her feet as she perched on the edge of the sofa. “We never really had time to think about it. At first, we hadn’t realized how much time had passed. We were just trying not to get caught and after that it was just one escape after another.” Vanille fiddled with her bracelets, her voice somber. “We were running away from more than just our focus back then. It never really sank in until we were in Oerba… Seeing it like that really was a shock. We couldn’t deny how long we’d been asleep anymore, but by then we had all become so close it made things a little easier.” Vanille gave a small smile.

 

“Still couldn’t have been easy.” Sazh let his gaze drift outside. “I guess it’s a good thing we brought back Vincent when we did then. At least the kid isn’t alone.”

 

 Vanille leapt to her feet, her enthusiasm returned once more. “He’s got us too! I’m sure we’ll all become good friends.”

 

Sazh chuckled. “Only if Light doesn’t scare them off with that glare of hers.”

 

Vanille grinned for a moment before walking over to the window. Her gaze drifted up towards where Cocoon rested, the crystal that held it glowing in the moonlight. “I’m glad that they aren’t l’cie.”

 

“I hear you there. Wouldn’t want to go through that a second time.” Sazh rubbed his neck. “Kind of amazing you can cast spells with those marbles though, isn’t it?”

 

“You think they’ll teach us?”

 

“I’m sure they will, kid.”


	8. Humans and Monsters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Still don’t own it.
> 
> A/N: I apologize for the long delay on this chapter. December’s always a busy month and it took longer than I’d have liked for January to settle down. I should be back to my regular update schedule of every 2-3 weeks now.
> 
> I have dubbed those motorcycle-like flying vehicles they use in FFXIII “hoverbikes.” While I’m sure they have an official name somewhere, I’ve been unable to find it.

Dawn came and went without sign of monsters. The entire town was tense, waiting for their appearance. It had been so long since there had been a quiet morning that it didn’t feel right. The game had changed once again. The attacks had been terrible, but predictable and now that predictability was gone.

 

The closest thing they had seen to a monster was a glimpse of Titan moving between the hills. Snow frowned. His gut told him the fal’cie had something to do with the monsters, he just couldn’t figure out what.

 

He had planned another scouting mission with their new companions hoping that they might be able to spot something he had missed. Light insisted on accompanying them. They had agreed to meet Cloud and Vincent at NORA’s café. When they entered, they spotted the two of them at a table near the back.

 

The two of them looked up at Snow’s greeting. Snow was glad to see that Cloud seemed to be doing a bit better.

 

“Ready to go?” Snow grinned.

 

“I need a weapon. I’d rather not rely as much on materia in a fight. When you found me, you didn’t happen to find my sword, did you?” Cloud looked hopeful.

 

“Well there was this huge sword… but it didn’t look like something anyone could actually use. Too big and heavy.”

 

“Blue and white blade? Grey and red pommel?”

 

Snow nodded. Don’t tell him this guy actually fought with that thing…

 

“Where is it?”

 

While Hope was happy to show them where it had been stored, the researchers were less than thrilled with the idea of letting the artifact go. They were convinced that the size of the weapon meant that it must have been some ceremonial item rather than a combat weapon.

 

“It’s a buster style sword.” Cloud said as if that was supposed to explain everything.

 

“It’s not made out of steel. You can’t tell me that’s in any way typical.” The researcher wasn’t backing down. “I’m sure you can find another weapon to use.”

 

Cloud frowned. Ignoring the researcher’s protests he reached over and picked up the weapon as if it were as light as cardboard and casually slung it onto the magnet between his shoulder blades. The researchers gaped.

 

Snow made a mental note never to get in an arm-wrestling contest with Cloud.

 

OOO

 

“Are you sure you’re not a l’cie?”

 

Cloud gave Snow a look.

 

“I mean you’re able to lift that sword like it’s nothing…”

 

“It’s the mako.”

 

Snow looked like he was waiting for the rest of the explanation.

 

“Mako enhances a person’s strength, speed and senses.” Cloud hoped they reached the vehicles soon. He didn’t want to keep answering endless questions. He didn’t want to think about anything.

 

“Are you one of those super soldiers?” Lightning asked.

 

“No.” Cloud sighed at Lightning’s expression. She weren’t going to let up until he gave her something. “I was part of an experiment run by a madman.”

 

Snow frowned. “A madman? Musta hid it well. Can’t see anyone volunteering otherwise.”

 

“We weren’t volunteers.” Cloud decided to change the subject. “Are we going to be taking Chocobos?”

 

Mercifully, Snow took the hint. “Chocobos don’t do well in the mountains so we’re going to be taking hoverbikes.”

 

“You don’t have green or black chocobos?”

 

“Never seen a chocobo in any color but yellow.”

 

Cloud sighed. Don’t tell him… the methods of breeding other colors of chocobos had been lost… again.

 

They entered a building that almost resembled an aircraft hangar on the outside, but instead of a plane or an airship on the inside, there were more of those strange wheel-less vehicles he’d seen the day before. Brightly colored diagnostic displays were pulled up on some of them, the images seemingly hanging in mid air.

 

“We’ll take two bikes. Vincent you’ll go with Snow. Cloud you’re with me.” Lightning indicated two of the vehicles. She tossed Cloud what appeared to be some sort of curved plastic device. “Here’s a phone. I’ve already put our numbers into it.”

 

Cloud fiddled with it unsuccessfully, trying to figure out how it worked, much less turn it on. There didn’t seem to be any visible buttons and it was so light he felt like he’d break it. “Can’t we just use a PHS?”

 

Snow looked at him blankly. Lightning looked exasperated.

 

Cloud looked down at the phone in dismay. Sure a PHS only got reception where there was line of sight for the towers. You’d never get decent reception in cities and you were completely out of luck in the mountains, but they were simple and easy enough that anyone could use one. They also had clearly marked buttons, unlike the device he was holding.

 

“Cloud, you learned to pilot a submarine in ten minutes. You’ll figure it out.” Vincent reached over and opened the phone for him.

 

“But we took the crew hostage remember? They gave me a run down of the basics.”

 

“They told you the controls once.”

 

_It wasn’t the first time you’ve stolen memories._

 

“The controls were intuitive,” Cloud said defensively.

 

Vincent raised an eyebrow.

 

OOO

 

They landed the hoverbikes when the trees became too thick and proceeded on foot. Lightning had caught glimpses of Titan and knew he was close it would be a bit of a hike but they would be able to reach the fal’cie.

 

The hike was quieter than her previous one. Snow had tried unsuccessfully to start a conversation a few times but eventually gave up. Vincent was as taciturn as before and Cloud seemed lost in his thoughts, occasionally tilting his head as if listening to something only he could hear.

 

She still didn’t trust them. While the rational part of her admitted that she would be less than forthcoming in their position, she still resented how much information they were keeping from her. What had allowed Vincent to live for so long? How did Cloud get his strange abilities? There was something off about them. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

 

They were climbing down the side of a shallow ravine when Snow stumbled. He slid several feet before coming to rest.

 

“Break anything?” Lightning snapped out of her thoughts and nimbly picked her way down to him, the other two were close behind her.

 

Snow waved her off. “I’m fine.”

 

“Good. I don’t want to have to explain to Serah how you tripped over your own feet and broke your neck.”

 

Snow laughed. “I’ll do my best to spare you.”

 

Lightning half smiled and shook her head. Idiot.

 

“Shall we continue?”  

 

Cloud tensed. “Something’s coming.”

 

Lightning followed Cloud’s gaze but couldn’t see anything. She was just about to speak when she heard it. A shuffling, wheezing sound. Moments later it came into view.

 

It looked almost like a human in a dark, shapeless coat. The figure’s movements were short and jerky, as if they were having trouble moving. Snow started towards the figure, but Cloud caught his arm.

 

“They might be hurt!” Snow protested.

 

Cloud stared at the figure, expression unreadable.

 

The figure’s head dipped, as if lacking the strength to hold its neck up. “Ree…” it gasped. “On…”

 

Lightning went tense.  “I think it might be a cie’th…”

 

She looked closer, but the voluminous coat hid any monstrous features there may have been. It jerked and stumbled towards them writhing in pain.

 

Cloud stepped forward cautiously. “What number are you?”

 

The figure laughed. It was a wheezing, disturbing sound.  An arm shot out inhumanly fast, catching Cloud by the forearm. Its fingers began to burrow into his flesh as if trying to meld into him.

 

In one smooth motion Cloud’s free arm shot forward and a burst of ice magic exploded between them, severing the creature’s arm from its body. Blood spattered in an arc from the torn flesh. The creature let out an ear splitting shriek. Cloud stared at the creature for a moment before throwing the severed limb back at it and grabbing his sword.

 

The creature kept screaming. It was a horrifying, piteous sound. The creature threw back its coat. Its form pulsated and twitched before exploding into the form of a twisted, mutated mass of limbs and eyes.

 

Lightning readied her gunblade and attacked, not waiting for the creature to act again.

 

As she leapt she felt a spell wash over her.  The creature seemed to slow, but it was her movements that had increased in speed.  Dodge. Jump. Slash. She was vaguely aware of the others and the magic that aided her, but this was battle and she worked best in the thick of it.

 

Vincent’s bullets whistled past her while Snow kept the monster‘s attention focused on himself. It was similar enough to a battle pattern they’d used before, with Vincent taking Sazh’s usual position. Cloud’s battle tactic was somewhat similar to hers and they attacked from opposite sides forcing the creature to divide its attention between the two of them.

 

The monster didn’t stand a chance.


	9. The Sister Ray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long delay. I won’t bore you with a list of explanations, but I’ll do my best to keep it from happening again. Don’t worry. I do know where the story is going and have the ending planned.

Cloud stared down at the charred remains of the human-that-was-not-a-human half expecting the creature to get up again. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air. Finally, the creature began to slowly dissolve. The creature had fought fiercely, but had gone down eventually. Snow and Lightning looked tired but uninjured. Vincent watched the creature vanish, his face impassive.

 

_They were attacked by the virus and went mad... transforming into monsters._

 

His arm stung where the creature had tried to meld with him. The feeling of fingers burrowing under his skin, the Jenova part of him that called to the creature… Cloud forced his thoughts away. His arm was still weeping blood where the fingers had gouged into him. Normally, he’d let his mako take care of an injury that small, but Cloud was worried about what the creature might have left behind. He charged up a small fire spell and pressed it into the injury, gritting his teeth against the pain before casting Cure over it.

 

“What was that thing? I mean it looked kinda like some of the more recent monsters… but bigger and nastier.” Snow looked at them.

 

“It looked like it tried to merge with you.” Lightning frowned.

 

Cloud didn’t reply.

 

“If these monsters are the result of Jenova, destroying the main body should prevent more monsters from being created.” Vincent turned to them.

 

“So this thing creates monsters? Like Titan?” Snow asked.

 

“Jenova infects things. Mutates them into monsters such as this,” Vincent replied.

 

“So this monster was trying to infect Cloud?”

 

Cloud shook his head.  “It doesn’t need to.”

 

Lightning gave him a stern look. “You’re already infected.”

 

Cloud nodded.

 

She turned to Vincent. “And you?”

 

Vincent shook his head. “I underwent a different process.”

 

“Is this going to be a liability?” Lightning crossed her arms.

 

“Do not worry.” Vincent spoke before he could reply.  

 

A nagging, buzzing, feeling began to tug at Cloud. They needed to see this fal’cie they kept talking about. They would find some answers there. A direction to go. They had to leave now.

 

Vincent turned to Cloud. “You sense something?”

 

_No._

 

“No.” Cloud turned his gaze in the direction the creature had come. “We’re wasting time. We should go see Titan.”

 

“Shouldn’t we be looking for this Jenova-creature?” Snow dusted himself off.

 

“There’s no telling where the main body is.” Vincent frowned.

 

They had already defeated Jenova… hadn’t they? They had fought her before fighting Sephiroth, but they had fought Jenova many times before as well. Full forms that had sprang from body parts. How many parts did Jenova have left? How much strength had Jenova regained? Static buzzed inside his skull.

 

“We could split up.” Snow suggested.

 

“We stick together. We know where Titan is. We check there first.” Lightning was firm. “Splitting up will just get you killed.”

 

“Can’t have that. What kind of hero would I be then?” Snow gave an easy grin.

 

Cloud stared at Snow, trying to hide the unsettled feeling Snow’s cheerful words brought.

 

 “What’s the matter? Don’t tell me you’re a cynic like Lightning?” Snow laughed and started walking.

 

OOO

 

“There should be a flyover of Midgar in here somewhere. I saw one earlier.”Cait Sith shuffled through a stack of black objects the robot had said were mostly security tapes. They had been scavenged from all over the Shinra building tagged with where they were found and then placed in large boxes.

 

With the Cait Sith’s help Hope had fixed a television that would work with the tape player. The cathode ray tubes were bizarre, but they appeared to work well enough and soon they were sitting in front of the television with the grainy picture of a large city at night.

 

“It’s beautiful!” Vanille sat with Bahkti perched on her lap. “What’s the green glow around those buildings?”

 

“Buildings? Oh! Those are Mako reactors.” Cait sith pointed at the screen. “This was filmed after Reactor One blew up. See there’s a gap in the ring of reactors. That’s the Sister Ray.” He pointed to what appeared to be a massive cannon of some sort.

 

Hope had no idea what you would do with a cannon that large. It would be overkill for any airship. He shuddered to think of what something like that could have done to Cocoon.

 

The camera panned and a great big red ball could be seen hanging ominously in the sky.

 

“Is that Meteor?”

 

“Scary isn’t it? It hung in the sky for nearly a week. Everyone thought the world was going to end.”

 

“Is there any video of the lower layer of the city?” Hope asked.

 

“Maybe. Most of this is stuff above the plate.”  The cat turned back to the tapes.

 

“What’s that?!” Vanille leapt up. “Is that a fal’cie?”

 

Vanille pointed at a massive grey-white creature just barely visible on the horizon, some kind of airship flew by it as if watching. The Sister Ray lit up. The massive coils around the base of the cannon glowed bright green before going dark. Pistons locked into palce. The cannon fired. A giant beam shot out at the same time the giant creature fired. The beam hit the creature, passing clean through it through it. The top of the Shinra tower was riddled with explosions from the monster’s attack.

 

 Hope turned to the robot in shock. “You had cannon that could kill fal’cie?!”

 

Cait Sith shook his head sadly. “That was the Diamond WEAPON. It would have destroyed Midgar if the Sister Ray hadn’t stopped it. Midgar wasn’t the best city, but there was no way we could let all those people die without a fight, but in the end Meteor destroyed it anyway.”

 

Hope’s mind whirled. If they could repair that cannon, maybe they could be free of fal’cie once and for all.  They would be able to fight the fal’cie without getting close enough to be turned into l’cie. “How did the cannon work?”

 

Cait Sith gave him an odd look. “It used Mako. The Sister Ray isn’t the sort of thing that needs repairing you know.”

 

“Maybe we could convert it to some other kind of energy.”

 

The robot frowned. “And use energy fal’cie create to fight the fal’cie?”

 

Hope sighed, defeated. If only they had some way to power it… They needed to find energy of their own. Energy the fal’cie couldn’t cut off after they began to fight. Maybe there was something here, something among these artifacts that could lead them to it.


	10. Connections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Still don’t own it.
> 
> A/N: Arriving when you least expect it… chapter 10! 
> 
> Thank you everyone for your kudos and comments! Even a review as simple as “I liked the chapter” means a lot to me and I love hearing what people think is going to happen.

“How can something so big move so fast?!” Snow threw his hands up in exasperation. 

“It takes big steps.” Cloud walked past him to examine the area.

They had just seen Titan there that morning, making creatures, or doing whatever it was the fal’cie did in its spare time over where he had seen it digging that one morning. By the time they arrived, the fal’cie had moved on.

Deep gouges that were as large and deep as ditches scarred the landscape, exposing the strange crystal. One gouge into the side of the mountain had exposed a whole cave of the stuff and a …spring? Fountain? Snow headed over towards the fountain, a puzzled frown on his face. Had this been what the fal’cie was looking for, or had it uncovered it by accident?

The fountain was little more than a deep puddle no more than a foot deep, but it glowed with a gentle blue-green light. Geometric crystals like those that dotted the walls decorated the bottom of the pool, obscured by the rippling of the surface. Two green splotches of color hid beneath the surface like someone had lost them beneath the surface. Curiosity drew him closer.

“You shouldn’t touch it.” Vincent’s voice made him jump.

“Make some noise next time would you?” If Snow didn’t know better he would have thought Vincent looked amused.

“It’s a natural mako spring. It’ll burn you if you touch it.” Vincent waved his gauntleted hand towards the surface.

“There’s something in the water. Maybe we can fish it out with a stick or something.” Snow glanced around, hoping to find a large root or tree branch.

“It’s probably materia. You can find it in natural springs like this.”

“You never find more than one materia at a time.” Cloud had joined them by the edge of the pool. “Someone left it here for us.”

Who would know they’d come this way? And where would they have found materia? He hadn’t even known the stuff existed until recently. Something else was going on, but he didn’t have a clue as to what.

Cloud stripped off his right glove and took a deep breath, as if bracing himself before plunging his hand into the pool to remove what looked like a deep green marble. A second grab produced another. Pulling out his canteen, Cloud rinsed the glowing liquid off both himself and the materia before replacing his glove. 

Vincent picked the one of the orbs up and rolled it around in his palm before repeating the process with the other. They glowed slightly at his touch. “Barrier and cure. Still at the first level.”

Cloud and Vincent exchanged a look. Vincent shook his head. Snow had no idea what the exchange meant. He had never quite mastered condensing a conversation down to a look and he didn’t know either of the two well enough to hazard a guess.

Cloud turned to Snow. “Interested in learning to use materia?”

OOO

While the others had been drawn into the cave, Lightning busied herself with scouting the area outside. There was no indication of what Titan had been looking for. And the gouges seemed to travel up the valley. A trail of what could only be the tracks of the massive fal’cie led north. Off to one side of one of the gouges lay a dark heap. She worked her way across the uneven terrain towards it to investigate.

The body of a man lay still, limbs bent at unnatural angles, face slack with death. Bone lay exposed to the air, tooth marks scraped across them. Beneath dark sticky blood was the logo of the Guardian Corp. Lightning hadn’t known the man, but she had seen his face before. He had gone missing after a skirmish only days before.

A Guardian Corpsman that had been taken by the mutated monsters, mutated monsters that appeared from nowhere and were infected by Jenova… a fal’cie that created strong monsters…

A horrible realization struck.

Lightning strode over to the cave that the men had gone to investigate, only to find them looking over what looked like green marbles. “Titan is working with Jenova.”

“What?!” Snow looked about appalled as she felt at the idea. “Why would a space alien work with the fal’cie?”

“To injure the Planet and call forth the lifestream.” Vincent looked grim. “Both Jenova and the fal’cie have tried create large impacts on the planet’s surface before. It’s not impossible to think they may have decided to work together this time. ” 

Cloud tilted his head as if listening to something only he could hear. “We need to follow the tracks.”

Lightning’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

“Why else leave such an obvious path? Titan wants us to follow.” Vincent swept out of the cave. After a moment, Cloud followed.

Lightning couldn’t help but feel like Vincent was covering for Cloud. This was the second time Vincent had cut in after Cloud had done something strange. Was it really just that they didn’t want to talk about the side effects of whatever had been done to them? Or was there something else?

Lightning shook her head. It didn’t matter. She didn’t have time for this.

“What is it, Sis?” Snow was looking at her with a concerned expression.

Lightning frowned at the nickname. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

They’d need more supplies if they were going to take a longer trek. Should she have Sazh meet them somewhere he could land or head back for the night to protect the city? Lightning warred with the decision. They would keep going. After placing a call with Amodar to inform him she would be gone for longer than planned, she called Sazh. There was a field a couple hours hike away he could meet them at. Lightning gave him a list of supplies they would need. 

Exiting the cavern Lightning passed the others, heading north along the fal’cie’s tracks. 

OOO

The scientists’ eyes widened when they saw the footage Hope showed them of the Sister Ray in action. They all exploded into a ruckus of comments and one of them rewound the footage to play it again. This time they paused it and pointed at various parts of the screen.

“We’ve found some partial schematics of how it was attached to the tower. It makes a lot more sense after seeing this.” A scientist tapped his clipboard while another took notes.

Hope listened and watched, unsure that we would ever get a word in edgewise even if he could think of something to say. While part of him wanted to let the excitement of discovery carry him away, Cait Sith’s words dampened that feeling with an edge of unease. The robot itself lingered near the back of the room, watching them and frowning.

“Look at this glow over here, I’m sure we could find a way to insulate it and focus even more power into the canon.” The scientist pointed to the ripple of energy that crossed the canon. “There’s so much power loss here compared to the manadrives we use.”

Mako had nearly destroyed the world, but what other kind of power could keep their world running if they gave up the manadrives the fal’cie provided? Was everything the Shinra created evil and destructive? There had to be something they could salvage. 

Their choices couldn’t be limited to killing the planet or continuing to be the pets of the fal’cie. There had to be a third option.

There had to.

OOO

Vincent frowned at his phone. He had slipped away from the others when he had seen who the caller was. Despite Cait Sith’s personality, he wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t important. The robot had just finished telling him about the ideas people were getting from the video footage of the Sister Ray. Hope hadn’t been the only one to think of reviving the canon against the monsters that threatened New Bohdum after seeing the footage. Cait Sith had managed to distract Hope, but the scientists would take more work to discourage.

“We can’t let them revive the Sister Ray. I mean, I think I talked Hope out of it but these scientists… they’re already trying figure out how it worked!” Cait Sith’s voice was frantic.

“Is their any way you can get their data?”

Cait Sith huffed. “Of course I can.”

“Do what you can to stall them. Delete data if you have to.” Vincent sighed. “I had hoped that after all these years the mistakes of the Shinra would not longer be tempting.”

“That’s about as likely as seeing Hojo in a miniskirt.”

Vincent hid his face in his hand and groaned. “More nightmares will come to me now, more than I previously had.”

Cait Sith laughed.

 

OOO

The second time Lebreau saw the woman it was in a quiet little neighborhood that had been so far spared from the monster attacks. It was early enough that the streets were empty. People didn’t usually emerge until the daily monster report was aired for the day. The woman was sitting on a bench outside of one of the small buildings, staring up at Cocoon, with a sad, wistful expression on her face. Lebreau’s steps slowed, before turning and heading towards her. The woman gave a sad small smile when she noticed Lebreau.

“Did you find your son?” Lebreau joined her on the bench. 

“Not yet, but I will.” She turned her gaze back up towards Cocoon. “I fear he’s left the city.”

“Has there been any sign of him?”

She nodded. “One group saw him. My son fought them and ran when they tried to bring him back. I think he blames me for what happened in the past. That’s why he won’t come home.”

“He blames you for his brother’s death?” Lebreau’s heart went out to the woman.

The woman nodded. Lebreau put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, who looked surprised by the touch.

“It’s not your fault.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I’ve seen your expression. That’s enough for me.” Lebreau shot to her feet. “I’ll help you look for him.”

“Would you? Really?” The woman’s face shone with gratitude.

“Of course I will! Helping people is what NORA does!” Lebreau declared.

The woman stood and pointed down the street. “Let’s start in this direction.”

They amiably walked along the empty streets, their footsteps sounded like thunder in the eerie silence. 

“I should have asked yesterday, but I’m so used to just striking up conversations with people in the café that I forget sometimes. We never exchanged names. I’m Lebreau.” 

The woman blinked in surprise, obviously expecting a different question. Then a slow, unnerving smile spread across her face. “People have called me many things. But my favorite is Jenova.”


	11. Who Goes There?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you could probably guess from the last chapter, we’ve reached a turning point in the story. Things are heating up and our antagonists are starting to swing their plans into motion. Were any of you surprised? Many of you caught on to the fact that the woman was suspicious so I’m guessing a few of you might have seen it coming. 
> 
> Thanks to everyone who’s been following and bookmarked the story! Feel free to leave a comment and say hi whether this is your first time reading or you’ve been following since the beginning. I love to talk to reviewers, so don’t be surprised if you get a reply from me.

Maqui looked up when he heard the door. Lebreau leaned heavily against it as it shut. She looked haggard and dirty.

“Are you alright?” Maqui walked around the bar, his eyes looking over her with concern. He couldn’t see any visible injuries though.

Lebreau looked up, surprised to see him there. “I- I’m alright.” Her voice and dazed expression contradicted her words.

He gave her a skeptical look, before reaching behind the bar and grabbing a potion from where they were hidden in the emergency stash. “Take it.” His tone left no argument.

Lebreau obediently took it and the change was nearly visible. Her gaze turned towards the window. “The monsters are attacking.”

“Is that what happened to you?”

Lebreau nodded.

Maqui went over to the window and looked out. Smoke rose up over the rooftops a short distance away. “It’s pretty close.” He looked back at Lebreau, torn between making sure she was really all right and going to help fight. “Why do they keep attacking us?”

Lebreau put a hand on his shoulder and looked over him towards the smoke. “It’s a distraction, of course.”

He turned to look at Lebreau. The corner of her mouth curled upwards.

A chill ran down Maqui’s spine.

OOO

Hope flipped through a sheaf of old reports. They were sparsely written; whoever had given the reports had either been in a hurry or was trying to keep the details to themself. Hope filled out the tag and attached it to “Escapee Report No. 2” before turning to the next artifact to be catalogued, a fragile wooden crate.

“Recovered from Icicle Inn” the box label read in faded, nearly illegible writing. A date was written too, in some long obsolete calendar system. Hope opened the box to find more tapes. Each was labeled with a date. He debated whether to watch one or not. The player had nearly eaten one of the tapes he and Cait Sith had watched and the robot had to show him how to wind the film back into the tape. Cait Sith had chuckled, saying it used to happen all the time, but Hope didn’t find it very reassuring. In the end, Hope’s curiosity won out, and he pushed the tape into the player.

A man, a scientist it looked like, walked into the frame to stand next to a beautiful woman with brown hair. He spoke to the woman addressing her as Ifalna and asked her to tell him about the “Calamity from the Skies.”

Hope leaned forward. Hadn’t Cait Sith called the Jenova-creature that?

Ifalna spoke as if she was relaying a story she had heard many times before but still found just as disturbing. She described a monster that wore the faces of loved ones, approaching as a friend, deceiving its victims, before infecting them and turning them into monsters. Ifalna paused, trying to gather herself. The scientist, Gast, decided they would continue the interview another time. The screen went black.

Hope stared at the screen, suddenly queasy. If those were Jenova’s monsters attacking the city, did that mean they were once people? No. They had to have once been animals. If there had been mass disappearances they would have heard about it. The dead were accounted for.

He tried hard not to think about the talking monsters.

OOO

The relief Lightning felt when she saw Sazh’s plane arrive immediately disappeared when she saw Vanille bounce out of the cabin followed by Fang. “What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t think we’d let you go alone, did you? We came to help!” Vanille grinned.

“I tried to talk them out of it but they insisted.” Sazh made a helpless gesture.

“At the very least you should take either Vanille or myself as a guide if you plan on going deeper into the wilderness.” Fang leaned against her spear.

Lightning could feel a headache coming on. At least Serah had stayed behind. She didn’t need to watch out for her sister as well as everyone else. Still having a few more eyes to help her keep track of Cloud and Vincent might be helpful. Vincent had somehow slipped away for nearly an hour before reappearing. He claimed he’d been scouting. It hadn’t seemed to occur to him that he should have said something before heading off on his own.

Lightning sighed in defeat. “Fine. You can come.”

Vanille cheered.

“Kids…” Sazh shook his head with a smile.

Enthusiastically, they hefted their packs and unloaded the rest of the supplies, but Sazh opted to turn back to New Bohdum rather than accompany them.

“Someone’s got to keep an eye on everyone else while you’re gone. ‘Sides, I can’t leave Daj with things the way they are. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on Serah and Hope too.” Sazh reassured them.

They traveled up through the canyon, following the trail that Titan left for them, the former l’cie chatting amiably among each other while Cloud and Vincent spoke softly between themselves, their voices low and serious.

While they walked, Snow filled the others in on what they had seen and found. Vanille resolved to go back and see the mako spring herself one day, but there was an edge of uneasiness and forced cheer to their jokes that reminded Lightning of when they were l’cie. While no one said anything aloud, none of them had taken the news of the fal’cie working with Jenova well.

Fal’cie could be killed. They were tough, but it could be done. They’d beaten plenty of them before and they could do so again. If they killed Titan, then it might stop the waves of monsters. If they took out Titan and Jenova then the fal’cies’ plan would be thwarted, at least for now. It was Jenova she was worried about. She didn’t know enough about the creature to know where to begin to take it out.

OOO

They had just entered a small clearing when a massive clawed hand placed a pack of monsters in front of them. The monsters were less surprised than they were and sprang at them immediately. Vincent fell back, raising his gun to support the others from behind. They made short work of the creatures and as the beasts began to disappear into the Lifestream, Lightning and Snow turned up the narrow ravine with a sudden confidence to their steps.

“Titan’s here.” Snow explained. “He’ll throw stronger monsters at us the closer we get.”

Vincent had seen Titan from a distance once, long ago, but he had never had a reason to approach the fal’cie before now. As they fought the gauntlet towards Titan Vincent almost wished he had come before now. The challenge felt invigorating after languishing for so long.

Snow and Lightning led them upwards, and soon they arrived at the edge of a cliff high enough to see the massive fal’cie’s head and torso.

“Titan! We’ve come to talk!” Snow called up to the fal’cie.

The fal’cie fixed its massive eyes on them.

“Why are you sending the monsters that have been attacking the city?”

Instead of answering, Titan turned its attention to Cloud. “I’ve been expecting you, child of Jenova.”

Anger flashed across Cloud’s face. “I’m nothing like Jenova!”

“But you are the same as her.” Titan’s booming voice almost sounded amused.

Cloud blanched, but if it was at what Titan said or at something else, was impossible for Vincent to tell.

“What do you know of Jenova? Why are you working with her?” Vincent cut in.

A strange rumbling sound vaguely reminiscent of laughter rang through the air. “Only the strongest will survive.”

Titan raised both clawed hands. Gaping maws and glistening claws rained down upon them.


End file.
